Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University

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Commentaries are published weekly and distributed through the Indianapolis Business Journal and many other print and online publications. Disclaimer

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Factory Productivity Growth Isn’t About Machines, but PeopleEven if our industry is dominated by technology, we often fail to see how this affects production within our firms.

GM’s Layoffs Are a Warning to Indiana’s Workforce PoliciesFactory jobs are not coming back and manufacturing employment will be a much smaller share of US jobs in the future.

Thanksgiving for Economic Growth and Human FlourishingAcross the developed world, poverty is no longer the result of economic conditions.

Amazon LessonsThe clearest lesson of Amazon is that people matter to business location decisions, probably more than everything else combined.

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Commentaries tagged with government

March 11, 2018	Rustbelt Cities Must Focus on Middle Class NeighborhoodsSchool quality is always the most pressing issue for middle class neighborhoods, but other amenities matter. The cost of improving amenities in communities that are likely to survive for several decades is very small.
March 1, 2015	We Need to Study, Modify and Preserve TIFIn the coming months we must better understand the characteristics of good and bad TIFs using data, not just anecdote.
September 14, 2014	Focus on Shrinking the Federal GovernmentMost of our current problems are at the local level: schools, crime, housing, unemployment, and poverty.
July 20, 2014	State Taxes and a Slowing EconomyState income taxes are a good place to try to begin understanding state economic performance.
July 6, 2014	Court Rulings Uphold FreedomSome issues should stay as matters of individual conscience, not public policy.
May 18, 2014	Hoosiers Will Pay for Better Public ServicesTaxpayers are concerned with the value of government, not the cost alone.
May 4, 2014	The Tale of Three StatesThe balance of state and local government results in noticeably different outcomes in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
January 5, 2014	Economic Systems, North Korea and the ACAThe problem is that the economy we have is not a system; it is a series of markets that cannot be organized.
November 17, 2013	QE3 and the Labor MarketThe sign of a truly positive jobs report would be the decline of stock prices in anticipation of the end of QE3.
October 27, 2013	The Affordable Care Act into the FutureThe ACA must work for more than 30 million households—one-third of whom are functionally illiterate, and another third of whom have no computer or internet at home.
October 20, 2013	A Still Uncertain EconomySomething remains terribly wrong in the U.S. economy, but there are some tantalizing hints
October 13, 2013	Welcome the Debate, Even If It Ain’t PrettyThe size and scope of our government is in tension with the available dollars we can tax from households and businesses.
March 10, 2013	The Sequester of the FutureThings will get worse before they get better.
November 18, 2012	Thelma and Louise Approach the Fiscal CliffThe spending cuts of the fiscal cliff will be far less broadly injurious than most suppose.
October 7, 2012	Bernanke Visits IndyBernanke maintained that monetary policy was not a panacea for our economic woes.
July 22, 2012	Job Creation and DestructionGovernments don't create jobs, businesses do.
July 9, 2012	Smart Cuts in GovernmentIt is often argued that government workers are overpaid and over-benefitted, but I think that the composition of the government workforce is a more pressing matter.
April 2, 2012	The Joke's on Us with Social SecurityIf treated as a financial investment, Social Security is a really very effective way to destroy wealth.
May 28, 2007	Can a Democracy Manage Budgets? "...in the case of Indiana’s sales tax on gasoline, a move to suspend the tax would have some especially bad repercussions."

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